Did the Mad Hatter have mercury poisoning?

After the introduction of mercury into the process of hat making in the seventeenth century it became a notoriously dangerous occupation, especially in France, where mercury was first used. Mercurial poisoning became so common among the hatters in Victorian Britain that it is widely supposed that Lewis Carroll had the condition in mind when he invented the character of the Mad Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But did he ? I think that the evidence is to the contrary. The manufacture of hats from fur entailed a process known as felting, in which the hair was cut from the pelt (usually that of a rabbit), laid layer upon layer on a conical mould, and pressed and shrunk with steam or hot water. The use of mercuric nitrate was kept secret by the French and disclosed only when the Edict of Nantes forced the Huguenots to flee to England taking their secret with them. The advantages of using mercuric nitrate in felting were that it made the outer stiff hairs on the pelt soft and limp, and twisted and roughened them so that they packed together more easily. In Britain the process came to be known as carrotting because treatment with the mercuric salt turned white fur reddish brown.